A new 1,230 mile underground natural gas pipeline will run through Butler and Warren counties, with construction scheduled to start next year, its developers said.

The ATEX Enterprise Pipeline will transport ethane gas from southwest Pennsylvania to the Gulf Coast area. Locally, the path of the pipeline will enter Warren County south of Waynesville and travel at a southwest direction in a line north of Lebanon. The pipeline will then enter Butler County and head in a line south of Middletown and north of Hamilton, Rainey said. By design, the pipeline will miss the major cities.

The company wants to start construction of the pipeline in the spring of 2013 with a goal of having it be operational by 2014.

Initial capacity for the pipeline will be 125,000 barrels per day, which could expand to 190,000.

“The first thing we do is look for a route where there is a existing pipeline corridor. In this case there is a pipeline that already exist. What we try to do, so we don’t have to create an additional corridor, is use those existing transportation corridor,” Rainey said. ”We are in the process of contacting landowners to negotiate right away agreements.”

Some citizens expressed concern that their land will be used for the pipeline at a recent meeting held by eminent domain attorneys Michael Braunstein and William Goldman.

Braunstein cautioned the attendees not to get pressured into signing over easement rights without talking to an attorney.

“It’s like if you cut off the bottom of my tie and then tried to just pay for the piece of cloth you took,” Braunstein said. “What about the rest of the tie that’s now destroyed?”

Braunstein said residents need to take into account how the pipeline would affect the value of the overall property, as well as limitations that would be placed on the area the pipeline was placed under, such as forbidding buildings from being constructed on it.

ATEX will take several safety measures to ensure the pipeline is safe including a remote monitoring control room in Houston; internal inspections to check condition of the pipe; aircraft flyovers every two weeks and people on the ground making sure its operating properly, company officials said.

“We look at like this is a long-term relationship,” Rainey said. “Once the pipeline is in the ground, it will continue to operate for several years and we will continue to work with land owners so it is imperative to develop a positive working relationship right from the start. We are relying on land owners to let us know info about their property.”

Rainey estimated 95-99 percent of easement claims are settled without resorting to eminent domain court action.